Vanderburgh County ready for possible polling place violations

Here's what you need to know to come prepared to the polls on Nov. 6.
Nikki Boliaux, Courier Journal

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Vanderburgh County Clerk Carla Hayden, center, marks the end of the early voting line behind Tamara Ellis, right, at the Vanderburgh County Civic Center Monday. Early voting ended at noon, but the polls open at 6 a.m. Tuesday and continue until 6 p.m.(Photo: DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS)Buy Photo

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — It was an embarrassment and an outrage, Vanderburgh County elections officials and both parties said at the time.

It's been 10 years now since a local television crew captured a Democratic poll worker chanting then-candidate Barack Obama's name and asking who in the polling place supported Obama. Not to be outdone, a Republican poll worker retorted that it was "(John) McCain's house."

The incident was broadcast by WTVW-FOX7, posted on YouTube and widely circulated online. It later emerged that the Republican poll worker shouldn't have been working in the first place because he was a candidate in a contested election for a GOP convention delegate slot. A Vanderburgh County grand jury ultimately decided not to return indictments against the two poll workers for electioneering.

"I'm glad I wasn't here for all that," County Clerk Carla Hayden said Monday, shaking her head.

But if anything like it happens again — or if any voter or campaign worker is reported to be violating Indiana election law — Vanderburgh County will be ready.

As in past years, seven attorneys representing the two major political parties and the Vanderburgh County Election Board will be on standby to answer legal questions and make polling place site visits if necessary.

Every election brings reports of possible misconduct at the polls, though it is seldom as serious as poll workers themselves chanting candidates' names and asking voters which candidates they support. The lawyers typically find themselves dispensing legal advice by phone, not venturing into polling places.

"It's usually an overzealous campaign worker is electioneering or going in a polling place wearing a t-shirt with a campaign slogan and they don't respond to an election worker," said Hayden, Vanderburgh County's chief elections official.

Other typical complaints include campaigning too close to polling places, removing candidates' signs and loud squabbling among opposing campaign workers.

State law prohibits campaigning within 50 feet of a polling place and includes myriad restrictions on who may enter polling places. Voters are asked not to leave political literature in voting booths, smoke in polling places or wear articles of clothing advocating election of any candidate.

Candidates may not enter polling places except to cast their own ballots.

Vanderburgh County Treasurer Susan Kirk has seen it all. Kirk was county clerk from 2005 until 2013. She also managed the Election Office from 1973 until 1984.

Kirk recalls one voter proclaiming Obama the anti-Christ in a polling place. Another announced with misty eyes at an Election Office polling place that she had voted for Obama.

"It's usually minor," Kirk said. "In all the years I was clerk, I probably sent the attorneys out to polling places four or five times."

Kirk said anyone who spots a possible election law violation Tuesday should alert a poll worker. If a witness wants to call in a violation himself, elections officials ask that complaints be directed to the Election Office at 812-435-5122.

It takes a small army of people to stage an election locally, even when it's a held in a non-presidential election year. In 2014 – the last time it happened – 37,220 people voted in Vanderburgh County. It'll be more this time. As of late Monday afternoon, 28,002 early ballots had been cast by early voting alone.

Almost 300 poll workers representing both parties and other party volunteers, plus election support staff, will be in action Tuesday. The county will have workers available in election and voter registration offices to answer questions and resolve any discrepancies in voting records.

Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.

The election will be staged at voting centers in Vanderburgh County, where registered voters can cast ballots regardless of where they reside. Hayden will deploy more than 300 of the county's 550 electronic voting machines at polling places, with most of the remaining machines held in reserve in case they are needed to replace broken or malfunctioning machines. Each of the 22 vote centers will have paper provisional ballots in case of emergencies.The three vote centers expected to be the busiest – Washington Square Mall, the 4-H Fair Auditorium and Calvary Temple Assembly of God – will get extra infusions of poll workers and voting machines.

Indiana's voter ID law requires voters to show a form of picture identification issued by the state or federal government. With exceptions for military IDs, the government-issued IDs must have expiration dates or they will not be accepted. They may be expired, but only if they expired after the 2016 general election.

Proper forms of ID include U.S. passports, driver's licenses, state university photo IDs with expiration dates and Bureau of Motor Vehicles-issued Indiana picture IDs.

Voters who want to follow Vanderburgh County results in statewide, congressional, local and legislative primaries Tuesday can find them on courierpress.com or the C&P app. Voters could go to the county clerk's website and click on the "election results" link for updated election returns.